section swept

‘‘Tis the way you drive them that decides how long they last” Oh and service them. Vannies always insist on overloading the poor things, then with the suspension on the bump stops (if they haven’t already been destroyed) the driver then insists on driving at break neck speed everywhere and as close as possible to the vehicle in front of them accelerating and decelerating loading up the transmission. It’s no wonder most vans clutches and gearboxes wear so quickly.

Do you use a bike cover to stop inquisitive pond life thieving scum bags from following you and nicking the bike, they probably wouldn’t be bothered if it was a Trials bike, or any other bike come to that ? Nice, generous offer.

Working on US cars can be challenging too but more of a pleasure as they don’t appear so often....

No change there then! I started my apprenticeship in 1966 in a small garage with three mechanics and me, and even then we reconned that after the initial design of a car was ok’d for production it was then passed to the department of sharp edges and impossible corners to hinder access or better know as the ‘cock up department’ Strangely enough in the Marine industry sport boats and upto 50 footers these to can prove to be virtually impossible to get at vital components when needed. Cam belt access on many of the latest cars and vans is dammed awkward, hurrah for the reinvention of the timing chain, and now the wet belt from Mr Ford. Keep yer tools clean???

Remove pads, clean caliper piston faces ( the area that contacts the pad) clean the pad backs (the area that contacts the piston face) check that the edges of the metal pad backing are not rusted or damaged, clean off with abrasive paper/cloth such as fine emery or wet and dry 600 grade. Now use either high melting point silicon grease/white grease or Copperslip, use sparingly allow none to get on the friction material. You are looking to provide a barrier between the pad metal edges and the area between metal backing and pistons. Re fit pads and ensure no lube is on the disc or the pads. Pump brake lever or pedal a few times to establish brake feel and test by riding on road or track applying brakes gently. The other factor that will make any brake pad sqeak or squeal is that the small amount of ferrous metal particles in the pad material will rust over night creating a microscopic layer that gets wiped off on the first few brake applications. A lot of trials bikes have brakes that make a noise many can be cured by the method described in a few cases the leading edges of the pad need to be slightly chamfered by approximately 0.5 mm, this will have an effect as you are reducing the braking surface area but not by much. When you consider that a Trials bike gets washed more than most other bikes it is easy to create noisy brakes. Hope you have success.??

THINKING now that’s a new word for them (in the past at Jaguar) to conjure with. More likely designed by committee and approved by the doorman! I used to service the XJS company car that the Aston Martin Media Manager used to run...work that one out! He wanted to know why he got rear wheel spin at 80 mph in the wet...I ask you?.. We even had a Jaguar field engineer out to confirm the car had the high ratio diff fitted...prop turns to road wheel turns multiplied by the number of stripes on the engineers tie. This car it turns out was his wife’s shopping car, he bought from us a ......wait for it.....no I’m considering my options here....wait....a....( this is like the stupid part in any games show where they build up the boredom..I mean tension)......wait I’m straining this out now......ROVER SD1 3’500 Vee 8 Van Den Plas....there I’ve said it....now did this Aston Martin Media Manager have style and panache, an accute eye for things beautiful and alluring....NOPE...never mind the fact that he wasn’t offered an Aston....any wonder Ford had to bail AM out. In another perverse world our AM salesman drove as a company car....wait for it.......wait........a.......wait...........Princess 1.7L that’s the ‘O’ series engine laddie be proud.....imagine turning up at a prospective AM buyers residence in that pile of c#@£!

Exactly, some dimwit had the bleed nipples on the lower half of the caliper. We used to refer to that kind of mistake as coming from the f@#£ up department. And don’t mention the handbrake, MOT testers had to make an exception for what was a secondary brake, I’d call it a wishing brake!

You should be able to tell by looking at the pad material, if you can see copper coloured particles in the friction material they are sintered. They may not be the best formula for trials bike braking, but for faster road and other forms of competition perfectly adequate. For good feel especially the rear brake a soft compound is good. From the front, soft to medium compound will give good feedback and performance. Obviously the softer the compound the more rapid will be the wear. Too often people go for a hard compound in the false hope of producing good braking, hard compounds need heat from speed to enable them to generate good braking.

Additionally once a good firm feel is established, by holding the pressure on for 12 or more hours this removes the microscopic air bubbles and really gives the brake lever/pedal an even firmer feel.

Jaguars with Dunlop braking systems were a real pain, taking the calipers off and holding them upside down, you would not believe the performance some systems required. I still find it hard to believe that some of the Italian superbikes need the same trick to achieve a decent brake.

Check the brake master cylinder around the seal for signs of fluid leakage and corrosion. Check for signs of fluid leakage on the rear caliper around the pistons. If all appears to be clean and clear of leaks.....the seals can allow air into the circuit in some instances but no fluid escapes....Gently eases the brake pads back off the disc into the caliper and use either thin strips of plastic or alluminium to go in the gap between the pad and the disc. Make sure the caliper pistons are clean on their exposed surface before doing this. Now go through the bleed process again, fill the reservoir with fresh clean fluid...never re use fluid that’s been bled through and don’t shake the fluid container, this will aerate the fluid and it will need to settle for a long time. If the fluids been exposed to the atmosphere it will draw in moisture from the atmosphere...hygroscopic....fully synthetic fluid is less likely to be affected but nonetheless less treat with care. Is the bleed nipple creating a good seal/seat when gently nipped up home? With a clear tube attached to the nipple and the open end immersed in a small amount of fluid in a clear pot you can start to bleed. Open the nipple and operate the brake lever fully down and observe the fluid coming out of the pipe into the pot, hold the lever down and close the nipple. Repeat the process several times until no air is seen in the bleed pipe. Tighten the nipple gently. Operate the lever, you should feel resistance almost immediately. If this is the case you can now remove the pad packing and then operate the brake lever pumping the pads into contact with disc, at which point the lever should feel quite firm. Check the master cylinder push rod free play and set to man. spec. Too little free play will eventually cause the fluid to get hot, expand and force the brake into being on until it all cools down again. If this doesn’t work then I’m afraid you will need to either replace the master cylinder complete or fit a seal kit, and if there’s no improvement a caliper/seal kit, if available to you. It’s a simple circuit and blanking off the flexible pipe at the caliper end should help you eliminate one or the other. Re reading you writing, vacuum bleeding is a good method and using a syringe to bleed is a good method, providing the flex pipe, caliper and m/cylinder are in good order. Hope you sort it, let me know??

Try tytrials.com

Hope you get the info you need.

Nasty between leg crush potential with a tank bag. Better to have either a well padded back pack or bum bag. In either case keep any tools and spares to a minimum and protect yourself from injury in the event of a tumble. A tool roll across the front fork yolks or a mini tank bag suitably adapted to fit the yolks works quite well, at least the tools are not on you.

I could get shot down in flames here but I reckon you have with the #1box that’s for the 350 and #2 is for the 500. You may get more useful help and information from Old Bike Mart, there are many subscribers to this paper and some are very knowledgable. You may even be able to make contact with a few Sunbeam owners. Have you tried the Sunbeam Owners Club??

Try A J Sutton worth a look.

Here’s a few pics of my TY250 E

Well here goes, knowledge gained from having been a Yamaha Dealer and just recently restored a TY 250 E. Your bike looks really good and in complete condition. Yours has the wider engine cases and is heavier in build. The single seat that you have looks nice but is it located far enough forward, it looks as though it could go forward an inch or two. You’ve got to get the rear of the tank cleaned up and painted, looking at the pictures you have a dent in the top of the tank. To do justice a good body and paint shop should be able to sort it at a reasonable price. Once its done some clear helicopter tape could be applied to protect the new finish. Geared for speed, it’s a Trials bike and the tyres are not nice to corner on at speed, they can have you off really easy. The steering angle is designed to be fairly quick and you may notice the front wobbles and feels dead. Unlike a proper road bike or Moto/cross bike which will have significantly more trail in the steering department. Then of course there are the brakes to consider, which for trials work are great...ish but for fast road work?✋ Remember the faster the engine speed the faster the wear and this applies to all of the running gear. You don’t mention the auto lube system, presumably this has been removed, you must check to make sure all,of the lube pipes are off and the oil entry points are blocked. The oil pump drive shaft hole needs to be correctly blanked off and sealed, check that this has been done. The oil mix ratio is ok but you may find going for 60:1 may give better running. The Yamaha owners manual contains tips for road and trials riding, with tyre pressures suggested at something like 28 psi front and 30 psi rear.....going from memory, but then my handbook is for the more modern 1978 E model. The carb mixture screw had a two position cap fitted which in position one was for trials work and position two was for road work....going between sections. However I don’t know if your early model had this. There’s nothing nicer than a gentle run at about 35mph on the road, taking in the scenery...carefully of course! When you take off the cylinder head slacken the head nuts a little at a time working first on the front centre nut then the middle rear and then diagonally to each nut, this procedure will help to prevent distortion. You may not need a new gasket if it is copper, you can anneal it to reuse if in good condition. With the head off you must check the cylinder bore for signs of seizure and scoring of the bore. You can also check for excess piston sideways movement. Pistons are not cheap and you may find that removal of the barrel gives you a better picture of the internal condition, you will be able to check for big end play and main bearing noise, you may find that the crank is reluctant to turn easily, this may indicate that the main bearings are cocked up due to age. The crankshaft oil seals may also be hard and leaking, these should be checked, leakage here will ruin a good engine. You may find everything is sound?? and usable, let’s hope your lucks in? Anyway it’s nice to see a good looking Trials bike like the TY being kept in nice condition, enjoy.

As you only have two eyes it makes a lot of sense to invest in the best. Your day will be ruined if anything at all should hit you in the eye, plus there’s the usual reaction to that which could see you have an accident you didn’t want! For the road a visor gives more protection because a small stone hitting you in the face alone can be very painful and distracting. Proper goggles m/x style or ski type offer your eyes good protection. There is a few riders that use old style gas welding goggles with just the clear screw on lenses, but you tend to look like a WW2 Japanese Kamikaze pilot? The more stuff your helmet has the more unwieldy it becomes and neck pain is not a nice thing to develop and ride with, keep it light but keep it safe it’s just the one head after all!?‍♂️??

Bear in mind that the first time you drop your bike it will very well end up with scuffed rims, scratched plastics, marks on the tank, dents in the engine guard, scrapes on the side of the forks etc. etc. Famous last words by rider with brand new bike at first trial (for the bike) after he’d just thrown it into a large rock, breaking the clutch lever, snapping a mudguard and scratching an engine casing....”why did I waste so much money only to throw it into the scenery!!!” That’s the down side in having it new, but its a warm feeling knowing that you are the first....bit like finding a virgin.?

You could try Birkett TrialsUK. Their site has workshop manuals and spares lists. Possibly give them a ring for guidance on the gearbox sprocket. Some manufacturers left a small amount of side play to allow for alignment when cracked in mud etc. Not had experience with this make but you’ll get the definitive answer from someone on here who has?

Going shoppin boy? Hello Mongoose, me ma and pa used to live in Mundesley....if the sea hasn’t swallowed the place up ( they were very close to the seashore)! There were quite a few places to ride if you asked nicely of the land owner. Not been back in years so I could be misleading you. This may be too far to travel for practice, Swaffham or near to it used to have a practice area but not to sure if it was legal. There’ll be someone on this site that can update you and suggest an area or two. ??

Run the engine for a few minutes, kill engine, select first or second and with clutch pulled in rock bike back and forth until you feel the clutch let go. Strip and careful inspection and clean as Oni Nou suggests would be a good idea, get rid of any burrs found on the clutch drum and plates. You say you have replaced the slave cylinder with a good one if this is second hand ensure that there is no corrosion inside the slave cylinder bore, this will shorten slave piston movement. As Oni Nou indicates about the bearing in between the two push rods you may also consider getting one push rod a few mm longer, this may alleviate the issue altogether.

Smaller sprocket......it might be easier to fit a larger front drive sprocket as you may not need to increase chain length as with a larger rear. Two teeth on the front would probably equal ten off the rear, but with no teeth numbers calls not possible.

Marquez, that cheeky chappy. He rides like he is ‘the’ most important person out on the track. Marquez must be taken down a peg or two and a three race ban should sort him out. That also might make Honda think a bit harder about employing a liability, imagine it Marquez barging round the track, that’s most of the satellite team hondas knocked out of the way and then there’s just that Pedrosa bloke to go......I Marquez your leathers with ma tyres when you get in my....in my way!!!! Post race interviews he will say we ad a gooood er race, I was lucky every body fall off but er my tyres were holding up, I just wanna thank my team for a good bulldozer...I mean a goood er set up.